ARCHITECTS, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF. An attempt was made among leading architects to organize this institution about 1836, and again in 1857, but it was not estab lished on a permanent footing until 1867. The office and library are in Trinity build ing, New York, and it has chapters in many places in the country. The proceedings of the annual conventions include a number of papers and debates on constructional and testhetical subjects, published with the annual reports of the society. Through its chap ters the institute has improved the building laws of the country in various localities, and called public attention to the deficiencies of many national structures. The main object of this institute is to unite in fellowship the architects of this continent, and to combine their efforts so as to promote the artistic, scientific, and practical efficiency of the pro fession. It proposes to have the laws in relation to public health and safety, as con nected with buildings, perfected; and as the profession of architecture has no legal restrictions and no requirement of examinations, the members propose to effect ali neces sary reforms through the institute. A charge of 5 per cent on the cost of building has been adopted for full professional services, distributed as follows: 5 per cent for full ser vices, of which 2+ per cent arc for working drawings and specifications, 1 per cent for detail drawings, and 1+ per cent-for superintendence. America can hardly claim to have produced a special school of architecture, but there are many public edifices that deserve to be mentioned as specimens of architectural beauty. Many of our best architects are now designing in what is termed the " colonial " style, which is an adaptation of the Dutch style so much in vogue in this country during the last century. Comparatively little attention was paid to architecture before the civil war, but the growing taste and prosperity of the country have /enabled architects to erect many handsome dwelling houses, which will in no way suffer by comparison with those of European cities. Brick, stone, and iron are now much used in this country, and the Gothic style has been widely adopted for church edifices. Trinity church in New York, completed in 1846, one of the first great Gothic edifices of stone in the United States, Grace church, and St. Patrick's cathedral, in the same city, are fine specimens of that style. The temple Emmanuel is a reproduction of Saracenic forms. The Roman Catholic cathedral in Phil adelphia is modeled after the Italian edifices of the time of Michael Angelo. Trinity
church, of Boston, is the best example of the Romanesque influenced by the Byzantine, copied from edifices erected in France during the 12th century. The new " Old South church" in Boston is a building of strong form and decoration. The museum of art in the same city inclines to the Venetian Gothic, and among the more prominent of the later renaissance buildings are the Boston and New York post-offices, built of granite, brick, and iron. The lofty Tribune building is a noticeable feature of the lower part of New York. The Grand Central railroad depot of New York, and the new Lowell and Provi dence depots in Thiston, are splendid and well-appointed structures. The capitol at Washington, the corner-stone of which was laid in 1793, is in the style of renaissance. Extensive additions have been made to both wings since 1850. The material used is a handsome marble, the original building being of sandstone. The treasury building and the patent office are in the Greek style, as are the sub-treasury and custom-house, at New York. Of public buildings in Gothic form, a high rank must be given to the Con necticut state capitol at Hartford, the new capitol at Albany, N. Y., and the Ohio capitol at Columbus. Many fine buildings have been erected for commercial purposes in various cities of the United States which justly deserve the title of " business palaces," and are well suited to accommodate our merchant princes. Although architects are somewhat fettered by the small lots of 25 ft. in width prevailing in most of our cities, many welling-houses present remarkably handsome exteriors and interiors. Fifth avenue, in New York, is in this respect one of the finest thoroughfares in the world. The apart ment houses which have come into fashion since the late war, covering more than one lot, have fared better in an artistic point of view, of which the Stevens house of New York is one of the notable examples. Many beautiful country residences are to be found at Newport, Long Branch, and scattered throughout the country. There is a class of dwellings, however, which deserve severe censure, the so-called tenement-houses of our large cities, in which hundreds of families are crowded, at low rents, without proper accommodations for light, air, or water. But there is a movement to introduce marked improvements in this class of houses. (See Fergusson's History of Architecture, Ancient awl Modern.)